Fabrics Too Good to be True

Some retailers claim that their fabric performs better than any other. The truth is that many fabrics offer very similar general performance and can never (under any circumstances) achieve the reduction in ‘heat’ quoted by salesmen.

But more importantly, these tests are never carried out in a conservatory, or even measured using the sun as the heat source – just a light bulb!

Fabric manufacturers across the world provide technical data about their fabrics based on their own tests, which has created the situation where competing salesmen tell customers completely different reasons why their product is better, often ending in confusion.

When buying blinds for a conservatory, try not to be taken in by the performance figures being claimed. Test results are not necessarily fictitious, simply that they are not based on real conservatories and are achieved using wildly different conditions and so cannot be compared with each other.

Fabric performance is normally broken down into three or four categories:

• Reflection: how much energy the blind reflects
• Absorption: how much energy the blind absorbs
• Transmission: how much energy the blind allows through
• UV: how much UV radiation the blind allows through

Other figures sometimes used are the Shading Coefficient or Sun Protection Factor. These are very general methods to represent overall fabric performance in no specific manner.

Obviously the thicker and less translucent a fabric is, the better its thermal resistivity and the more effective its insulation against solar gain. It is worthy of note that you could achieve even higher performance figures by using a layer of any solid substance (fabric, wood, tiles, plasterboard etc.) so the claimed performance figures cannot possibly tell the whole story…

Don't rely on facts or figures quoted by Direct Sales Companies. Read about our Solar Reflective Fabrics that are designed for conservatories and talk to genuine experts who are happy to provide all of the information, so you can decide for yourself.

Click here to Ask an Expert

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